David kousseau



(No Model.)

D. ROUSSEAU. AUTOMATIC GIRGUIT OPENER.

Patented June 5,1883.

= INVENTIIIR \X/ITNEEEEE;

N. PETERS, Phulo-Lilhogmpher. Washingtom D. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID RoUssEAu, on NEW YORK, NY.

AUTOMATIC Cl RCUlT-QPEN ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 279,107, dated June 5, 1883.

Application filed April 29, 1881.

.To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, DAVID Rousseau, of New York city, New York, have invented oer tain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Oircuit Openers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention applies more particularly to electric circuits for electric gas-lighting burncrs, but also applies to circuits for burglaralarms, railway-signals, or other similar circuits containing a number of devices which are occasionally thrown into action by the closing of the circuit.

The object of my invention is to prevent a too long continued closing of the circuit, such as would occur undesignedly by a grounding or short'circuiting of the wires or connections at some point, and thus result in an exhaustion of the battery, so as to render the whole circuit inoperative when its action might be most required; and it consists in the arrangement and combinations of parts hereinafter described,

- gas.

and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

The figure in the drawing represents a safety circuit for gas-lighting burners arranged according to my invention, most of the parts being shown out of proportion, and some of them represented diagrammatically for convenience of illustration;

In this figure, a indicates the source of electricity, or battery, and b one of the gas-burners on the gas-pipes of the house. This gas-burner is provided with movable engaging and dis engaging electrodes, in the usual manner, for momentarily closing and breaking the circuit, so as to produce an igniting-spark to light the The circuit-wires from the battery are connected with the burner in the usual way that is, one connects directly with the gas-pipe, and is hence in connection with the movable electrode 0, while the other wire connects to the yielding electrode (1, which is insulated from the burner.

In the drawing the electrodes are shown in contact, and the circuit hence closed, the hand being supposed to be just moving the electrode 0 for the purpose of producing an ignitingspark to light the gas, which will be effected as soon as the electrode is moved a little beyond the point shown, so as to break contact with the other electrode, and thus produce a (No model.)

spark in the issuing gas-j et. After thus break- I ing contact and producing the igniting-spark, both electrodes retreat from the burner and remain out of contact, which is their position of repose, the circuit being of course closed only momentarily for the purpose of lighting the gas. It may sometimes happen, however, owing to some entanglement of wires, crossing of connections, injury to the burner or the electrodes thereon, or other accidents, that the circuit becomes undesignedly closed,-and may so continue for a long time unknown to the owner, so that the battery might become grounded or exhausted, and thus the whole circuit become inoperative before the fact would be known, so that the gas could not be lighted when desired; and, furthermore, electric bells or burglar-alarms in circuit with the same battery would be rendered inactive and useless when their action might be called for. To prevent this is the object of my invention, which I accomplish by automatically breaking the circuit whenever it becomes closed longer than is necessary to operate any of the usual devices in circuit.

Now, A indicates an. annunciator and automatic circuit-breaker, which acts to break the circuit and indicate the fact in case the circuit should become closed by some defect for too long a time, and forms one of the main parts of my invention.

B indicates a large coil, introduced in the general circuit as usually employed in gasburner circuits, to give a strong reaction when thecircuit is broken at the gas-burners, so as to emit a more powerful igniting-spark. In my system, however, I provide the coil with an iron core and arrange a movable armature e, in operative relation therewith, thus forming anelectro-magnet which, when the circuit is closed, attracts said armature e. Adjacent to this is arranged a strong double clock-move ment, 0, having both time and striking trains, on the ordinary plan, as indicated. The time train terminates, of course, in an escapement, f, as indicated, and one of the spindles of this train is provided with a ratchet-wheel, 9.

Now, h indicates a lever pivoted between the two trains, at h, with one arm arranged to lift the detent-hooks m of the striking-train, while the other arm connects to abar, 17, which has a pawl-tooth about midway to match with the teeth ofthe ratchetwheel and .is COllnected at its outer end by a spring or wire with the armature c. A second spring or wire, 7t, extends from the armature to the clockmovement, and is provided with a hook or bend, Z, which approaches the escapement-rod.

The arrangement is hence such that when the circuit is closed the armature is attracted and the hook Zwithdrawn from. the escapem cnt-rod, allowing it to swing, and hence permitting the time-train to slowly revolve. Atthe same moment the bar 6 will be raised, bringing its pawl tooth into engagement with the ratchet-wheel 1 Now, it" the circuit remain closed momentarily only, as will be the case if the gas is lighted at one of the burners, the armature c will be quickly attracted and retracted, and the bar 1 will retreat from the ratchet 1 and the hook Zwill return against the escapement, thus st opping the mot-ionol' the train after the escape of a few teeth, and causing the whole appzt ratus to drop again into repose. If, however, the circuit continues closed for any abnormal time, the train will continue to rev olve slowly, and the ratchet-wheel y will press the bar i onward, move the lever 11, raise the detentsm of the striking-train, and thus release this train, which will at once revolve and move a small eccentric, N, one revolution, after which the detcnts will automatically catch the wheels in the position from which they were started, in the manner of an ordinary clock-movement; but the movement already given to the eccentric u acts to throw the device A into action, which then breaks the circuit, and thus prevents any exhaustion of the battery, as will be now described. In this device A, 0 indi cates an ordinary annunciatorquagnet, over which mounted an annunciator-tag, o, having two faces at right angles, according to a patent just granted me, and pivoted at the intersection of the angle on radial arms 1), which straddle the magnet and swing on trunnions r, n'oiccting from. the forked magnctholder s. The armature i of this magnet acts, when retracted, as a pawl to uphold the tag in its quiescentposition, with the normal face before the transparent opening in the surrounding ease, and when attracted by the circuiting of the magnet the tag is allowed to drop, so that its announcing lace comes before the transparent opening, and thus announces the l'act. N ow, the magnct-holder s is metallic, but is attached to a supporting cross-bar, *u, or wood or insulating material, as indicated, and secured to the ends of this bar are metal standards 1, in which a small rock-shalt, i0, is journaled. A small lever, :1', projects from this i'oc'lesliai't, and engaged with. the end of the eccentric-rml, which extends from the clock movement, as before described. From the rock-shalt projects a pin, in, which normally, or when the parts are in repose, contacts with a hooked spring, 1 rising from the magnetholder. A N ow, the circuit-wires connect one to [7, rock-shaft w, hook 1 magnet-holder, tag.

arm, and spring 2. Now, the coilol'the magnet 0 connects at one end to the magnet-holder s and at the other end to the standard 1*, andhence the magnet is thus situated in a shunt oi the general circuit, so that when the geir eral circuit is closed little or no electricity passes through the shunted magnet, or rather not enough to magnetizc it sui'iicicntly to attract its armature and drop the annunciatortag. \Vhen, however, the general circuit rcmains closed sufliciently long 10 operate the clock-work train and rotate the eccentric n, as before described, the movement of the eccentric-rod will tilt the lever 01:, turn the rock-shalt iv, and cause its pin to l'ireak contact with the contact-spring 1 thus lu'eaking the usual path of the current and throwing the formerly shunted magnet into full circuit, which .magnet now instantly attracts its armature and drops the tag. Now, as the circuit is always completed through the spring and pin 1), i t will be seen that when the tag is dropped these parts separate and instantly break the circuit, preventing any continued action oi the l'iattcry, and at the same time the fall. of the an]iouncingiace ol' the tag belore the window of the annunciator gives notice of theinactivc condition oi'the circuit, so that the circuit may be examined for the defect and the same rcmedied before an v lamage could result.

The described devices thus form an aniomatic monitor which always guards the circuit, so that whenever it remains closed longer than a normal inter\ 'alsuch as would be caused by some short circuit or other accident to the eonnectionsthis monitor then posi iivcly breaks the circuit,and at the same'lime gives notice of the fact, which renders this mechanism an important adjunct to such circuits.

If after the tag is dropped the attendant wishes to prove that the circuit is defective. he simply draws out the raiser-knob c, which again raises the tag and closes the circuit. After a certain interval the devices will. go through their motions already described, and the tag will be again dropped and the circuit broken, and this will be repeated as often as the tag is raised. \Vhen, however, the defect in the circuit is found and corrected, the lag is finally raised by pulling the raiser-knob, and so left, as will be understood.

This safety mechanism is of course s iiecially applicable to gas-burner circuits, but not eonlined thereto, as already stated, and in burner circuits each burner or section or series of burners will. of course be connected with and represented by adistinct magnet, o, in the annunciatorcase, as will be readily understood. In the drawing only one of such series is shown, as it is only necessary to duplicate this to extend the system to as many burners as may be required.

For several reasons I prefer the clock-work mechanism shown in connection with the magnet B and armature e, to act by a long-continued closing of the circuit to throw the magnet 0 into full circuit; but any other device acting in the same way may be employed without departing from the principle of my invention.

In some cases the clock-work motor, in connection with the magnet B and its armature, may act to directly break the general circuit without the intervention of the device A. In this case the circuit may be completed, as in dicated by dotted lines, through two tongues, 2 3, one of which is held in contact with the other by a pin on the let er h, while the lever is in its normal position. When, however, the lever is moved forward by the continued movement of the clockwork when released by a prolonged attraction of the armature e, as already described, the under tongue will be left unsupported and allowed to spring away from the upper one, thus breaking the circuit and leaving it broken. Another arrangement of similar tongues, 4L 5, shown on the right of the motor may be used instead of the first named, these tongues, as will be understood,being separated by the motion of the eccentric a when the striking-train is released.

\Vhat I claim is l. The combination, with an electric generator and an electric circuit emanating therefrom, of an electro-motive device which is vitalized by the closing of said circuit, automatic time mechanism which is started into operation by said electro-motive device when so vitalized, and an automatic circuit -breaker which is operated by said time mechanism to permanently break said circuit at the expiration (it predetermined time after the closing of the same, substantially as set forth.

2'. An electric circuit of the kind described,

, provided with an electro-magnet arrangedtherein, in combination with a clockwork mo tor arranged, when released, to work a contactbreaker to permanently break the circuit, and having the said magnet arranged to thus release the said cloek-work whenever said magnet remains active and the circuit remains closed longer than a normal period, substantially as herein set forth.

3. In an electric circuit for gas-lighters or equivalent devices, the combination, with an annunciator-magnet and with its indicating drop or tag, of electrical contacts operatively connected with said drop and controlling an operative part of the circuit, together with means, substantially such as described, where by the prolonged closing of the general circuit will actuate said magnet and cause it to release its tag, and thereby separate the said contacts and break the circuit controlled thereby after a predetermined interval, and at the same time indicate the fact, substantially as herein set forth.

4. In a circuit for electric gas-1i ghters, or its equivalent, the combination, with one or more gas-burners and a general electric circuit completed through the electrodes on said burners, of a main contact in said general circuit and an electro-motive device in said circuit, substantially such as described,acting to open said main contact and thus break the general circuit whenever the circuit becomes closed longer than a normal period, with a distinct annunciator-magnet for each burner or grouppf 80 I burners, connected with the respective burners and with the general circuit in a shunt around the main contact, and with a minor contact in said shunt, which is closed when the tag of the magnet is raised or set, whereby the opening of the main contact willdivert or concentrate the main current into the shunt corresponding to the burner at which the circuit is closed, and thereby energize that particular magnet and cause it to release its tag, and thereby open its minor contact, and thus permanently break the defective portion of the circuit and announce the fact at the same time, substantially as herein shown and described.

DAVID ROUSSEA'U. lVitnesses: CHAS. M. HIGGINS, WILLIAM G. Room. 

